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| THE PROGRESSIVE FARMER. 


I Saturday, March 9, 1912.) 


_ System Explained. 


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| MERSON once said that one 
E could remain within the limits 
of a modest country seat and 
yet be much traveled and widely 
cultured. Better still, in his com- 
paratively home- 
keeping though 
surpassingly -full 
life, he. exem- 
plified the signif- 
icant idea. to 
which he gave 
utterance. To him 
the two means of 
traveling abroad 
in thought. and 
of acquiring a 
wide knowledge of the facts and 
| things common fo his every day 
world, while yet remaining at home 
in body, were books and nature. 
Through these he became familiar 
with the facts of life -and came to 
| recognize back of all natural objects 
and of life itself a divinity shaping 
1 them and unifying them into a sat- 
| isfactory whole. 


LOUIS R. WILSON, 


Twenty-Nine States Have Traveling 
Libraries. 

In order that home life—home 
life in the country especially—might 
| pe enriched and the outlook of the 
country fireside extended beyond the 
bars and over the hills to the great 
outside world, and that a fuller- 
knowledge of home life itself might 
be made possible, the traveling li- 
brary has been established and is 

being operated in 29 States. 


The traveling library system is a 
| very simple thing. A State creates 
a special commission by legislative 
enactment. Ordinarily it is composed 
librarians, and others 


HAVE TRAVELING LIBRARIES? 


“Farmers and Their Families in Twenty-Nine States Now Have 
Such Advantages, but Few in the South——A Good Reform for 
the Farmers’ Union and All Farmers 


to Help Along—The 


S : By Louis R. Wilson, Librarian, University of North Carolina. 


braries. The State appropriates a 
given amount of money for the pur- 


chase of books and maintenance. The 


books are carefully selected by the 
secretary and the commissioners 
after. they have considered carefully — 
the interests of all those whom the 
traveling collections are intended to 
serve. Then they are made up in 
cases of from 25 to 50 volumes and 
are ready for distribution upon prop- 
er application. Usually the commis- 
sion maintains a public office in the 
State library at the Capitol from 
which the cases are sent out free of 
charge except for transportation. The 
borrowers usually pay this. 


Special and General Collections 


Upon request special collections 
can be secured to meet special needs. 
A- debating library or a reference li- 
brary can be sent to a village school. 
A. public health library can be sent 
to a community interested in the 
suppression of preventable diseases. 
A gardening library can be sent to a 
group of truckers, thus enabling the 
State to make more effective the 
work of the departments of educa- 
tion, health and agriculture, and ce- 
menting all into a more helpful, re- 
lated union. Ordinarily, however, 
the libraries are sent in less special- 
ized form and are for the public 
use of: > 

1. Rural settlenfents which have 
no library facilities. 


2. Schools which have small col- 
lections and are consequently in need 


‘of supplementing from the outside 


if they are to be kept fresh and in- 
teresting. ; ‘ 

3. Villages or towns which have 
not established public libraries but - 
for which the collections thus sent 
may become the centers around 
which public libraries will spring up. 

4, High schools, special study 
clubs, local associations, ete., which 
are in need of richer reference col- 
lections or desire a few special books 

See oe eee 


on special subjects but do not feel 
justified’ in purchasing the books 
outright. —~ A 

The libraries are usually kept for 
from three to six months. At the 


_ end of the period they: are sent back 


to the commission to be replaced by 
another. In this way each commu- 
nity having a library association or 
station is kept supplied with new, 
interesting books, and the books are 
read by from one to two dozen com- 
munities before they are worn out. 
Sometimts shipments of magazines, 


pictures and stereopticon views are . 


also sent along with the books to 
add to their variety and attractive- 
ness; 


Time for the South to Wake Up. 


In the Southern States the very 
great benefits to be derived from this 
system have not been generally en- 
joyed, primarily because the people 
have not known that books could be 


* supplied in this way and at very 


little expense to the State. They 
have not realized that apart of the 
State’s revenues can be as legitimate- 
ly used in providing a public library 
of this nature for the citizens of the 
State at large as the revenues of a 
city may be in the maintenance of 
a library for its citizens. The prin- 
ciple is the same. Virginia, North 
Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, Geor- 
gia, Alabama and Texas-have library 
commissions of very recent estab- 
lishment, but only Virginia, Tennes- 
see and Kentucky have set aside 
funds in any sense adequate to make 


_ the operation of the system effective.’ 


The other commissions have a very 
few special libraries, but their ap- 
propriations do not admit of the op- 
eration of extensive systems. The 
use of these, however, is such as to 
demonstrate clearly the need for 
more generous appropriations for 
this purpose. 

In other sections conditions are 
better. In Massachusetts the State 
Agricultural Coilege -aids the com- 
mission by sending out the special 
agricultural libraries. Kansas owns 
35,000 volumes and has 525 cases 
in constant circulation. Ohio spends 
$10,000 the year for similar pur- 
poses and New Jersey’s 237 collec- 


_tions were so operated in 1910 that 
the aggregate of 40,570 volumes_ 
loaned were read by 118,500 borrow- 
_ers in different séctions of the State. ‘ 


hy 


How the Plan Would Work. 


Two practical questions present 
themselves in this discussion: (1) 
How can communities make use of 
such systems? and (2) How to get 
them started in States now without 
them, 4 

. The answers in both instances are 
simple. 

Groups of rural tax payers, rural 
schools, special study clubs and ‘vil-. 
lage library associations are usually 
the beneficiaries of such systems. Ap- 


' plication blanks are furnished upon 


request by the library commissions 
or State libraries. If a group of ru- 
ral tax payers wishes the loan of a 
library, five or ten of its members 
form a library association, sign the 
application blank and agree to be re- 
‘sponsible for the library. while it is 
in their possession, to pay transpor- 
tation charges on it to and from the 
issuing office and to place it in the 
home,of a librarian whom they name 
where the books may be accessible, 
free of charge, to the whole commu 
nity. The applications are filed in 
the order of their receipt and the 
collections are sent out for three 
months, four months or six months 
-ag the issuing office may determine. 
When the period expires the library 
is returned and a fresh one with diff- 
erent volumes is sent to take its 
place. If a school wishes to use the 
system, the school committeemen are 
made the responsible board and the 
teacher is usually chosen as libra- 
rian. Ina similar way special study - 
clubs and library associations in 
small towus may be organized and 


‘upon application may receive ‘special 
or general collections as their needs 
require. The whole plan is exceed= 
‘ingly simple and its value lies in the 
‘fact that for a comparatively small 
appropriation on the part of the 
State and for a small transportation 
charge borne by the community the 
varied services of a free public li- 
brary may be carried to the hearth- 
stone of every citizen of a whole 


State. 


heat Aa 
Seen 


